1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pivoting arrangement for pivotably mounting a shelf on a wire cart, a shelf comprising such a pivoting arrangement, and a wire cart comprising such a shelf.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wire carts having shelves which are pivotable from a horizontal to a vertical position, and back, are known in the art, e.g., the carts identified by the trade name CONVERTA. In such carts, the pivotable shelves are normally pivotably supported at rear edge thereof, on a rod extending horizontally across the rear side of the cart. When in the horizontal position, the shelves, at their front edges, are supported by a like horizontally extending rod extending across the front side of the cart and the front side of the cart is provided with vertical doors. The pivoting means at the rear of the shelves normally comprise circular loops which are attached at the extreme rear edge of the shelf and which encircle the rear side rod.
In order for the front edges of the shelves to clear the rod at the front of the cart when moving the shelf from the horizontal to the vertical position, it is necessary to be able to move the shelf backwards so that the front edge of the shelf moves behind the front rod. To enable this, the loops at the back of the shelf are made oversize relative to the diameter of the rear rod, so that some play is made available in the horizontal motion of the shelf. However, the oversized loops provide protrusions which are disadvantageous as they catch up in objects or people as they are being wheeled past them, or they will be the first parts hit when other moving objects make physical contact with the cart. In the latter case, if the physical contact involves substantial force, the loops may be damaged so that the cart will have to be repaired.